The University Budget Advisory Committee recommended a 5 percent budget cut for the 2009-11 biennium at N.C. State.
The Governor’s budget recommendation list, passed around at the Budget Advisory Committee on Thursday, became the starting point for the General Assembly’s work on the biennial appropriation bill. The plan includes the decreased budget through reducing management flexibility by 3.2 percent for 2010-11 and lowering the salaries and benefits budget by 2 percent. State’s section of the budget includes recurring operating budget request reduction by 25 percent, the elimination of non-recurring budget, and the elimination of funding for repairs and renovations, typically consisting of $6 million.
“The Budget cut of 5 percent is severe, as compared to the cuts the university had to make in the past twenty years,” Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Larry Nielsen said. “It is much lower than the 15 to 20 percent cuts in most other states.”
No salary increase is to be expected for teachers and state employees. The University will also have a cut of instructor positions and on-campus job opportunities for students, as well as a lower temporary wage pull.
Ira Weiss, dean of the college of management, said the University should be pleased with the budget cut plan.
“It is the rosiest version we would see,” Nielsen said.
Student facilities will also take losses. Libraries will lose 10 percent of their journal subscriptions and 3,000 fewer books will be purchased.
“Student programs will be difficult to eliminate,” Nielsen said. “What may seem to be a good idea to me and the Chancellor may not be supported by students creating and running those programs. Only if the consensus is achieved, will the elimination of the programs take place.”
The presented budget plan is organized to have the least possible impact on students and staff, according to Nielsen. University authorities are doing their best to protect students. Undergraduate students will receive most of the protection, while the number of graduate positions will fall, especially among international graduate students. Nielsen said summer school will also be modified.
“This summer will be the first summer when decentralization will be complete,” Nielsen said.
Remedial and preparatory courses in math and English are likely to be offered only in summer. Summer courses are fully funded by tuition, which makes it problematic to pay for ones with only a few students in the classroom.
Nielsen said the number of students in the class will have to be high enough to balance out the instructors’ salary and students’ tuition.
In general, there will be more humanities courses, such as history, offered in summer, than engineering courses, simply based on student interest in courses. Also, because more students take 300-level courses than 400-level courses, one of the suggestions made in the meeting was not to offer 400-level courses in summer.
Ideally, the committee wants the state to pay for summer school as it does for the normal year. The committee also suggested converting two five-week summer semesters into one regular semester.
